


When the Storm Ends

by maddiecasket



Series: At the End of the Day [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Heavy Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 20:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12848802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maddiecasket/pseuds/maddiecasket
Summary: The team attempts to learn how to deal with the death of their friend





	When the Storm Ends

**Author's Note:**

> This is the final part of my keith angst series

Kolivan stared down at the shaking body in his arms. Keith was gasping and gripping at his shirt, trying to find a hold on anything. Kolivan tried all the noises he knew comforted Keith, but none of them seemed to work. Keith was in too much pain to even understand what was happening around him. All he could do was sob and spew garbled sentences, most of which were too choked up to understand.

The rest of the team had gathered around at this point, all of them either crying or fighting back tears. Shiro moved over to Kolivan and Keith and fell to his knees. He took Keith's head in his hands and gently rubbed circles on his scalp. Keith's eyes were slowly starting to close and blood was trickling out of his mouth. Kolivan couldn't hold back the strangled sound that escaped his mouth.

He held Keith closer to him and pressed his hand over the wound stretching across Keith's body. It may have helped in the area his hand was covering but the cut was too long. It stretched all the way from his shoulder down to his hip. There was no way to cover the whole thing fast enough. There was no way to save Keith.

Keith let out a string of scrambled words. Something that faintly sounded like ‘I love you’. To who it was directed at, no one knew, but it was full of an emotion unknown to Keith's personality. Kolivan cooed softly and held Keith's hand as his breathes came to an all too sudden stop.

Somewhere behind him Pidge let out a scream and a body could be heard thumping to the ground. Kolivan closed his eyes and gently rested Keith on the ground, Shiro sobbing as he gently cradled Keith's head. Kolivan watched as tears fell onto Keith's face, some of which were his own.

Allura was the first to make a move. She gently picked up Keith and began the longest walk of her life. The rest of the group followed closely behind, the only noises being sniffles and quiet sobs. No one knew what to say or do except blindly follow Allura to the castle ship.

-

Kolivan sat on the edge of Keith's bed, his head resting in his hands. It had only been a few weeks ago that Keith had sacrificed himself for Lance. A few weeks since Kolivan officially gave up on finding a mate. All he had left of Keith was his sewing pieces.

One swipe of an enemy's sword had taken everything from him. He had only just gotten over his previous mate's death when he had started becoming close to Keith. It had almost felt wrong to Kolivan, becoming so close to someone so fast after the death of his lover. But it was such a thrill being with Keith. Sure, they had their rough patches but they loved each other. And they had never gotten the chance to say that out of bed, which greatly pained Kolivan.

In the small amount of sewing lessons Keith had given Kolivan, he learned a surprising amount. He took this small skill he had acquired and stitched together a messy red lion which had all of Keith's key looks. Kolivan gave the rest of the lions to the paladins and Coran. In a way, it was a step in letting go of the trauma this loss had caused.

-

Everyone could tell Shiro and Lance were having the hardest time dealing with Keith's death. Shiro had known Keith the longest. They had always been so close to each other, no matter what they went through. They always seemed to base their decisions off of each other. So now Shiro just seemed… lost. And no one knew how to help him.

For Lance though, Keith had taken that hit for him. It should have been Lance to take that killing blow, not Keith. He would still be alive and happy and doing whatever he did if it hadn't been for that one impulse to sacrifice himself. Lance knew he shouldn't blame himself, but he couldn't help the thoughts that invaded his head at night. He wanted to talk about it but he could never find the right way to bring it up, and whenever someone wanted to talk to him, he just brushed it off. 

Lance didn't miss the dirty looks from Kolivan either. He knew how close they had become. What made it even worse was that Lance knew Kolivan was at the point where he wanted to mate for life. Kolivan had truly felt like they were in a position to take their lives in that direction, and Keith had gotten himself killed because of Lance.

In other ways, Lance was mad at Keith. What was he thinking? He must have known what would happen when he ran forwards. A galra that strong could easily cause worse damage than what was inflicted on Keith. There's no way he didn't realize what was happening. Unless, he was just on autopilot. He was trying to save them all, and in a twisted, sad, deadly way he did. 

-

The castle ship had never been so quiet. The team rarely talked to each other anymore. Hunk had stopped cooking and really only worked on projects around the ship and upgrading the yellow lion. Pidge barely worked and spent a lot of time crying on Matt's shoulder. In a way, Keith had been one of Pidge's older siblings. Everyone had a family role on this ship for Pidge and that was where Keith fell. 

Allura trained with Lance almost all day. They almost always had to be stopped by Coran or Matt with how much they overworked themselves. It had even gone as far as they've gotten so lost in their fights they've ended up with broken bones from one another. This caused Coran to ban them from training together without supervision. When they weren't training together, they trained on their own. Pushing themselves to inhuman levels of fighting.

Coran spent his time teaching Matt how the castle works. Of course, when Matt wasn't being used as a tissue. Matt genuinely seemed interested, just like Lance used to be. Lucky for Matt, he didn't have issues with the healing pods and the airlock.

Overall, the inhabitants of the castle ship were still in the process of healing. The very early stages at that. No one ever thought they'd lose someone on their team. They always knew it could happen, but they had never considered what it would actually be like to lose one of them.

The way Keith had screamed and unceremoniously fell to the dirt and cried and cried as he went numb. The way blood gurgled out of his mouth and mumbled words and apologies spilled from his lips. It was as unforgettable as flying in a magical space lion for the first time. Even though everyone was healing, they would never forget the hurt this had caused them.

Not Kolivan, who lost his lover. Not Shiro, who lost his best friend. Not Hunk, who lost his cooking buddy. Not Pidge, who lost her brother. Not Allura, who lost her best fighter. Not Coran, who lost one of his newly found sons. Not Lance, who gave up so much to make Keith smile. This would be a pain that never ended. No matter what they attempt.


End file.
